Social media emails done right (how to embed social posts)

Social media is known for its amazing targeting and reach. Whether it’s Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter or LinkedIn, posting on these channels helps keep your brand top-of-mind and generates word-of-mouth marketing.

Email marketing, on the other hand, is the algorithm-free marketing channel that lets you talk directly to your subscribers. It's the ultimate relationship-building channel.

When you embed social media posts into emails, your subscribers can become social media followers! Let’s take a closer look at how integrating social media posts in your email marketing campaigns can work wonders for engagement.

An embedded social media post in your newsletter is a message that you posted on a social media channel that appears as part of your email. Instead of linking to your social media posts, you can show them the actual post in your newsletter.

For example, this email by Huda Beauty includes a carousel of embedded posts from their top Instagram influencers.

Embedding social media posts in email newsletters increases exposure, drives more engagement with your content, and improves website traffic. By embedding social media, you show another side of your personality and business that gives readers a better understanding of who you are and what you stand for. This does wonders for strengthening the relationship

Even more pros to combining email with your social media marketing efforts:

• Increase engagement: Newsletter subscribers can easily like, share, and comment on embedded posts

• Offer instant value: People don’t have to click a URL; they can see your post straight away in the newsletter

• Stand out: Social media posts are dynamic and visually appealing, which can help to capture attention and stand out in a crowded inbox

• Strengthen your connections: Your subscribers see that they can reach you across multiple channels

• Provide social proof: Testimonials and photos of clients using your product can go a long way in adding social proof to your marketing message while boosting brand awareness

• Gets people involved: You can easily set up competitions and challenges, and feature top posts in your newsletter each week

Next up, let’s find out how you can easily embed social media posts into your emails with MailerLite.

MailerLite has dedicated social media blocks within its drag & drop editor. You can create a social media newsletter from:

• LinkedIn

• Twitter

• Facebook

• Instagram

You can also use a video block to embed YouTube videos in emails, along with video content from other social platforms like TikTok.

And it’s ridiculously easy! In fact, you’ll wonder why you didn’t try it sooner…

Once you’ve created a new campaign and are in the editor's view, look for the social media content block in the sidebar. Drag and drop the block to your preferred place in the newsletter. Next, you can add the URL* of the post you’d like to embed (as long as it’s a public one). Our software will automatically display the content in your newsletter.

*Side note: This process is slightly different for LinkedIn and Facebook posts, which we’ll explain in more detail in the next section.

Head over to the drag & drop editor and add the LinkedIn post block into the body of your email.

In the right-hand sidebar, you’ll see a field labeled ‘Enter embed post code’. This means that you need to copy and paste the LinkedIn code, rather than the URL like with the other social media channels.

To get the code, go to your LinkedIn feed and select the post that you want to share. Click on the three horizontal dots in the top right corner, and select ‘Embed this post’.

Copy/paste this code, and you’re all set! You should see the LinkedIn post right there in your email, just like in the example below:

P.S. For a step-by-step guide, take a look at our help article on how to embed a LinkedIn post in a newsletter.

To add embedded tweets to your email, take the post URL (in the address bar) from any public Twitter post and copy-paste it into the Twitter block content settings. Once you paste the URL and click the green button, MailerLite will automatically fetch the content from the post.

This Twitter block is also a great way to send a tweet and build your social media following at the same time. The embedded tweets are clickable, so that you can easily redirect your subscribers to your account, and turn them into your Twitter crowd. The more, the merrier!

Almost all public Twitter posts can be added to the newsletter, and the original tweet will be shown in your email. And that’s it! It couldn’t be any easier to email a tweet.

This social media block allows you to embed a post from a public Facebook page into your email.

To take the post URL from the Facebook page feed, click on the three dots in the corner of the post, and select ‘Embed.’

This will take you to the ‘Facebook for Developers’ page, where you can copy the post URL.

Back in your MailerLite builder, select a Facebook post block and open the sidebar. Paste in the URL, and your post will appear in the newsletter.

Embedding an Instagram post in your newsletter is just as easy. Simply open any public Instagram post in the mobile app or on a web browser, click the 'More' icon and select 'Copy link'. Then paste the link into the Instagram block’s content settings. 

You can opt to display the post caption, or let the picture speak for itself. Embedded Instagram posts are an awesome tool for leveraging social proof as both the like count and follower count are included in the embedded post. 

Emailing YouTube videos is an excellent way to increase engagement in your newsletters and drive traffic to your channel.

The video blocks in MailerLite include a play button that, when clicked, opens your video in a new tab.

To embed a YouTube video in your newsletter, add a video block to your newsletter content. Then, click the video block to select it, paste the public video URL (from the browser address bar) and click the green return button.

The video block was designed to support YouTube videos, but video URLs from other platforms such as Vimeo, TikTok, Facebook Watch and other platforms may also be used. Just make sure you always send test emails before sending.

Many businesses maintain different digital marketing strategies for different social media platforms. Their Instagram account might show more visual and easy-to-digest posts, while their Facebook focuses on behind-the-scenes content and their Twitter account is where all the customer interactions take place.

Let’s say you’re introducing new employees via your Facebook channel. Instead of manually copying the image and text, you might as well directly embed the Facebook post in your newsletter. This saves you time and allows subscribers to add a like or comment directly.

Or let’s say you’re launching a new product, and you want to show the reception it’s getting on Twitter. You could embed individual tweets from happy customers, to add social proof to your product.

You can also embed social media posts in emails to:

• Announce a giveaway or webinar

• Share embeddable tweets of customer testimonials

• Share an event date and boost RSVPs

• Promote a live Twitter feed

• Invite subscribers to follow your page

• Insert a quote that readers can easily retweet

Let’s take a look at some examples of how email and social media can work together...

There’s no limit to how many social media content blocks you include in your newsletter. A weekly round-up from across multiple social platforms is a great way to advertise all your profiles at once. This email screenshot is from the end of the Disability Horizons newsletter.

They include both a Twitter post and a Facebook post in their email. This is great because subscribers who don’t use one platform can easily share posts with another.

Embedded social media posts are also a great way to drive sales. Alo Yoga is a women’s sportswear brand. In their newsletters, they include embedded Instagram posts of influencers wearing their favorite outfits. Subscribers can browse through their channel from the newsletter, and tap on the outfits that they want to buy through their Instagram shop. Perfect synchronization across email and social media!

Apart from embedding social media blocks in your emails, don’t forget to motivate your subscribers to follow your social endeavors too. The social icons in your newsletter won’t create a mind-blowing difference. But it’s always a good idea to include them especially since they’re so easy to add and small enough to smoothly integrate into your layout.

This newsletter by This Savory Vegan includes links to their social profiles, plus social sharing links if people want to share the newsletter online. Social sharing buttons help you to promote your content even more, via channels that you couldn’t otherwise reach.

As well as embedding posts and social media icons, you can create a CTA to inspire people to share more about your brand online. The marketers from Paperchase used this email to encourage their subscribers to follow them and share their latest purchase—which will give them lots of new content to embed in their newsletters later.

We’ve waltzed through the different ways to embed social media posts in your emails, but the fun doesn’t stop there! Here are 4 things you should be doing to get the most out of your social media and email.

1. Sync your subscriber list with Facebook Audiences

Grow your subscriber at super-sonic speed by syncing your subscriber segments with Facebook Custom Audiences, and display Facebook ads to people that have the same characteristics as your subscribers.

By syncing your subscriber segments with Facebook Custom Audiences, you can:

• Show ads to specific segments (e.g. fresh leads, subscribers who finished an automation, etc.)

• Exclude certain subscribers from campaign targeting

• Create Lookalike Audiences for lead generation and build targeted campaigns for potential customers that “look like” your existing customers

Just select Facebook Audiences on the Integrations page and follow these instructions on How to sync subscriber segments to Facebook Custom Audiences to set it up!

2. Share your newsletter on Facebook or Twitter

Let’s switch things up! We talk a lot about bringing social media followers to your email campaigns, but you can also share your email on social media.

Head over to the campaign you would like to promote, click ‘View report’ and click the 'More' dropdown to share your newsletter on Facebook or Twitter.

3. Use social media icons

Even if you don’t promote your posts in the email, it’s a good idea to add social media icons somewhere, such as in the header or the footer. Think of it as your business card; it shows your subscribers that you’re active across different social networks, and they’ll know where to find you.

In our weekly newsletter, we always include our LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter widgets in the footer. The footer is the most common spot to add your social icons. Simply find the social media icon content block and drag it into the newsletter.

4. Use Facebook lead ads

Ever seen an eye-catching video on your Facebook feed with a call to action (CTA) button underneath? That’s probably a Facebook video ad, and they’re super effective because they target very specific audiences. 

By integrating Ads Workbench with MailerLite, you can create targeted ads, where people can sign up to your newsletter straight away from the ad itself. Facebook can be great way to grow your email list! Alternatively, you could also direct traffic straight to your MailerLite landing page. 

Email marketing has evolved into an interactive marketing channel, where social media blocks, videos, surveys and quizzes take over the inbox. These smart content blocks make embedding social posts into your email not a whole lot easier, but also more fun for your readers.

Adding social media email blocks can boost your content’s relevance and encourage engagement. Just drag and drop, add the social URL and watch how the post appears in your newsletter in a matter of seconds. 

Want to know more about how to make social content marketing work together with email marketing? Our guide shares all the details!

How do you like to combine social media with your email marketing efforts? Comment below!

Editor's note: This article was originally published in September 2019. We've updated with new features and examples, along with more tips for embedding social media posts in your emails.